Gatwick passenger's car 'burnt to a shell' in fire

A woman whose car was "burnt to a shell" in a fire at a parking site for Gatwick Airport holidaymakers says trying to find out what happened has been "very stressful".

Penny Reardon flew home from the south of Spain to find that her Mercedes had been destroyed in a blaze which damaged 140 vehicles, many of which belonged to airport passengers using a third-party parking service.

One person has been arrested on suspicion of arson in relation to the incident in Wallage Lane, Rowfant, and has been released on bail.

Penny, from Rochester in Kent, said: "It's very stressful. I had a wonderful holiday but now I wish I hadn't gone."

She added: "I rang up to get told there has been an incident, the car parking company said it had been burnt to a shell.

"It can't be helped, but it hits your whole life and you aren't able to do anything."

Penny said she arrived back from holiday and called Sapphire Parking, who told her there had been an incident.

The blaze broke out at Caldyne Business Park near Crawley shortly after 21:00 BST on Saturday, and images from the site show huge flames and massive plumes of smoke above rows of stationary cars.

A spokesperson for Sapphire said on Monday that the fire was "a nightmare for everyone", and that it had been forced to cancel 600 bookings as a result.

No casualties were reported due to the fire, and a spokesperson for Gatwick Airport, which does not own the site, said it "understands how concerning and distressing this will be" for passengers.

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